December update, finally!

I know, I know, it has been WAY too long since updating G’s biggest fans, so, without further ado….

G visited the ophthalmologist again – as you may recall, we are patching his right eye daily for an hour to improve strength in his left eye. This was the first visit where there was not noticeable improvement, but hopefully there will be next time. The goal is to avoid surgery for his strabismus (cross-eye), so we will keep at it and see what happens.

G got to go to the dentist which was quite the adventure! He wouldn’t let anyone do much of anything, but the dentist was able to ensure all if his teeth are there (!), and they look great. He has gaps between his teeth which I was originally concerned about, however I have a new found appreciation! There is plenty of space for his adult teeth to come in (and hopefully avoid braces!), and because of the gaps we don’t need to be TOO concerned about flossing because everything can flow through without getting stuck. Brushing is hard enough, forget flossing! We continue to use “training” toothpaste since he can’t spit, which is weird to me, but I guess he isn’t missing out on too much fluoride.

AND, the dreaded ARD! It happened! It was quite overwhelming with 12 people in the room and without going into the nitty gritty details, we achieved as best we could hope for, for now. He “qualifies” for an hour of speech a week, and they (finally) agreed to evaluate G for OT and PT (which I couldn’t believe is an entire separate ordeal!). That was a bit of a struggle, but thanks to G’s teacher and Daddy P, we walked away with agreement for him to be evaluated (which I am sure will lead to him qualifying for services!). The open item is the timing of that eval, because as of now he qualifies for a 4 hour day, but when he turns 4 (August) he will qualify for a longer school day and therefore more services.

So now that we have the ARD recommendation, we start phase II which is to get funding for the proportionate share so that AISD will pay for his private therapy at The Rise School. We couldn’t do anything until we got through that meeting – I called the next day to find out there is no money left for this school year, so we start the process to get him on the list for next year. Ah, the waiting game….I had a feeling we might end up in this boat, but with at least 2 more years at Rise, we will take what we can get!

In other awesome news, Daddy P’s employer increased their PT/OT/ST visits from 60 to 120 annually, which doubles the services G was getting!!!!! This is HUGE for us and we are so thrilled they were able to accommodate our request. We do have to change from Aetna to BCBS however, which means more paperwork, and probably no services in January until everything gets approved 🙁 I am sure G won’t mind the break 😉

G had his last week of school, FILLED with festivities – pajama and movie day, a holiday ball, pizza party, book exchange, and more! Needless to say he has had a blast!

Now Mama C and G are recovering from a cold, no thanks to all the fun I am sure. 🙂 G wishes you all a very merry Christmas!! As his gift to you, a few pictures from the past few weeks 🙂

And look at this guy STANDING at the Holiday Ball!!! I am quite sure it wasn’t for more than a few seconds, but he is so tall and straight!! Thankful to his teacher and big sis for getting him up like that!